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Mrs. Prior

Classroom Handbook

Kindergarten

Como Park Elementary

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Table of Contents

Classroom Pledge/Mission Statement

About Mrs. Prior

- Contacting through phone & e-mail

What’s New in Kindergarten?

Helping Your Child Become Independent

Classroom Webpage

Classroom Management/Procedures

- Behavior Management

- Rewards and Consequences

Share Time

Birthdays

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Classroom Pledge

As a class, we agree to this pledge. Every morning we will say

our class pledge. Each child has signed it and agrees to try

their best to follow our pledge!

I pledge to try to do my best

every single day.

Listening, learning, and being fair

when I work and play.

Keeping hands and feet to myself,

treating others with respect,

making sure our things are neat

is what we should expect.

I’ll listen when my teacher speaks

and follow every rule.

I pledge I’ll be a good student

in my classroom and my school.

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Teacher Mission Statement

As your child’s teacher, I will provide

a positive and constructive learning

environment. I will challenge each student

to do his or her personal best. I will be fair

and consistent and treat each child with

respect as an individual.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Prior

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About Mrs. Prior

I am so excited to be your child's Kindergarten teacher this year! Kindergarten is a time of new beginnings, new independence, making friends, and new learning every day. Our days will be filled with many wonderful experiences and opportunities for learning and growing. I am looking forward to a positive and exciting year full of social, emotional, and academic success! I am a graduate of Buffalo State College with sixteen years teaching experience with ten years teaching in the Lancaster Central School District. I thoroughly enjoy children's natural curiosity for learning and give them plenty of nurturing with a variety of learning opportunities and guided problem solving. I have been happily married for 30 years and have two wonderful children. My son Ryan just graduated from UB this December and my daughter Haley graduated from high school. They have taught me patience, problem solving, and have given me the teaching experience from a parent’s and teacher’s point of view. I am committed and dedicated to the education of children. I love what I do and wouldn’t trade my job for anything in the world! I believe that communication between parents and teachers is the key to success for your child's education. I am proud to have established such wonderful relationships with parents in my previous classes. I am looking forward to establishing a wonderful relationship with you and your child this year. Please feel free to contact me at any time with questions or concerns. You may reach me by phone at school, but I will only be able to return your call during my planning period or after students are dismissed. You may also reach me by e-mail or by sending in notes with your child in their take home folder. Have a wonderful school year!

Sincerely,

Melissa Prior

School Phone #: 686-3235

email: mprior@lancasterschools.org

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What’s New in Kindergarten?

Kindergarten has changed greatly in the past years. It is no longer the

Kindergarten that you or I remember. NYS Common Core Standards

for a child leaving kindergarten are high . . . reading at least 50 words,

writing sentences, counting to 100, etc. It is a very exciting curriculum.

We work on social skills, rules and sing songs. I know you will be

fascinated when your child learns their alphabet, the sounds letters

make, adding and subtracting, and reading and writing their first

sentence! Don’t worry, I will be discussing all of these things with you

many times throughout the school year. Again, please call if you have

questions, comments, or concerns.

Helping Your Child Become Independent

Coming to Kindergarten is an important milestone in your child’s life. We

will encounter many new experiences. If you bring your child to

Kindergarten or if you pick up at the end of the day, I am asking that

you say your good-byes in the front lobby. To make the transition more

smoothly for your child, it is important that you say your good-byes in a

timely manner as your child will begin to find their own independence as

we venture through our days of Kindergarten.

One of our goals is to help your child become a responsible and

independent learner. Each child needs to be able to dress themselves,

hang up his/her jacket and backpack by his/her self as well as take care

of other classroom duties. PLEASE do not worry if your child needs

help, I will be there. I am sure you will agree that hearing your child

say, “I can do it all by myself!” is a great feeling! Thank you very much

for helping your child grow.

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Check out our Kindergarten webpage under Como Park Classrooms for:

classroom news, math, reading, and science websites,

along with photos throughout the year!

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Classroom/Behavior Management

Bouncing for great green behavior Each student has their own behavior card consisting of 5 different colors:

blue, green, orange, yellow, and red. All students start their day with their tiger

on green for a great green behavior day! Students have the opportunity to “power

up” to blue for extraordinary behavior! If a student is not following the rules and

was given one verbal warning, they will be asked to move their tiger to orange

(then to yellow and red if behavior warrants). If the student turns his or her

behavior around for the positive within a determined amount of time, they will be

rewarded by bouncing their tiger back to the previous color. My goal is to

encourage children to "Stay on green!" or "Get back to green!"

Rewards and Consequences at Each Color Green and Blue: Each student who keeps their tiger on green or blue all day by

following all the rules will earn a penny or more, along with special privileges.

Twenty-five cents will earn a trip to the treasure box. Staying on green or blue

all week will earn a chance to take home Bouncing Good Behavior Tigger, Helpful

Hippo, or Monkey Manners!

Orange: Student made a mistake. Mistakes happen. However, no penny earned.

Yellow: Loss of classroom job and privileges

5 minutes of time out during free choice. No penny earned.

Red: Loss of classroom job and privileges. No penny earned/Loss of free choice/

Student-teacher conference and teacher chosen independent activity to

practice and reinforce positive choices/Phone call home

* Daily/Weekly Behavior Sheets I believe behaviors should be addressed immediately along with rewards and

consequences. Your child will be rewarded with positive reinforcements,

encouragement, and praise on a daily basis.

* If your child needs or you would like an individual behavior/task plan, I will

implement a daily behavior sheet that targets your child’s individual goals.

Have bouncing

great, green

behavior!

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Rewards

praise, smile, high five

awards, stickers

Good Behavior Puppet to take home and borrow

for the weekend Bouncing Good Behavior Tigger, Monkey Manners, Helpful Hippo

happy phone call home

treasure box

extra computer time

classroom helper

free choice

An enjoyable, interesting,

AND challenging classroom

where everyone can LEARN!

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Consequences

No penny earned for treasure box

No good behavior puppets

No special privileges

sad phone call home

loss of computer time

loss of classroom helper job

no or limited free choice

loss of learning time

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On the last Friday of each month, we will have “Share Time/STL” for all

students. Our “Share Time” helps all children develop important listening,

speaking, writing, and reading skills.

Students may bring one item to talk about and share with their team.

The following items are suggestions to bring in to share their thoughts,

experiences, and feelings:

family picture

a picture that is special to them

something they made

favorite book they read/character representation

an award or medal they earned

a collection they have been keeping (one special item from the collection)

favorite toy

The above topics for share give children ideas to write about during Writer’s

Workshop along with encouraging wonderful conversations that develop deeper

comprehension, problem solving, and social skills.

Please do not send in anything breakable or that has expensive value. I am not

responsible for lost or broken share items. If you would like to have your child

bring in something that is not on the list, please let me know and we can discuss it.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Melissa Prior

Share Time

Show, Tell, Listen

STL

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Snack Time

Our snack is in the afternoon due to lunch at 11:15. I encourage

a healthy snack from home. I have provided a suggested list of

healthy and “less messy” snacks that are best for a school type

environment. Please send your child’s snack in a separate

container or bag, not inside lunch boxes. If a student has a

lunch box, I assume they brought their lunch. Unfortunately, I

do not have time to open all lunch boxes to check if there is a

lunch or just a snack inside.

Thank you.

ALLERGIES ARE IN OUR CLASSROOM: Please do not send

any peanuts, tree nuts, peanut butter, hummus, or foods

containing the above for snack.

These are fine for the cafeteria lunches only.

Suggestions:

(PLEASE CHECK THE LABEL FOR NUT INGREDIENTS!)

Crackers, pretzels, dry cereal, granola bars(with no nuts)

fruit: grapes, apple slices, etc., raw vegetables, string cheese,

Babybel cheese plain popcorn (cheese popcorn gets very messy on

hands and books)

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Birthdays

Birthdays in Kindergarten are FUN!

ALLERGIES: We must be extremely careful about the

ingredients in all the food items that are sent into our

classroom. DO NOT SEND IN HOMEMADE TREATS!

Any treats sent in MUST BE STORE BOUGHT WITH THE

LIST OF INGREDIENTS!

It is difficult for children to understand when families cannot

invite the entire class. Therefore, if you are planning a

birthday party, I ask that you invite students based on one of

the options below so there are no hurt feelings.

If you have a girl, all the girls in the class will be invited.

If you have a boy, all the boys in the class will be invited.

Invite the entire class.

No students invited

It is not mandatory to send in a treat for a birthday. If your

child has a summer birthday and you would still like to celebrate

sometime during the school year, that is great too, just let me

know when!